Canton family receives threatening letter

Michelle Langhout, Voice Editor

Wednesday

Sep 4, 2019 at 9:44 AM

Letter appears to be racially motivated

CANTON — A family in Canton has received a threatening letter which appears to target a young relative for violence.A photocopy of the letter, postmarked Aug. 22, 2019, was posted online to Facebook by a Canton resident on August 31. The letter is four sentences long and includes possible racial epithets directed at an unspecified person or entity. The letter instructs the family to “keep that (epithet) under control, otherwise you just might find it in a ditch somewhere.” Sandwiched between additional insults toward the family, the author instructs the family to “Get out of this neighborhood.” The words, “1st warning” appear at the end of the letter.Comments by the original poster indicate the threat was likely directed toward an eight-year-old female relative of mixed racial descent, and indicate something similar had happened to the family last year at about the same time. Additional comments by the original poster indicate the family contacted local police both times about the incidents.Edward Glad, the Information Officer for the City of Canton and the Canton Police Department, confirmed that the department had received a report about the recent incident. “It was pretty threatening,” he said of the letter. “From what I understand, there was some talk that this may not have been the first time this has happened, but it’s, at least as far as I’m aware, the first time we were notified about it. So there may have been a previous one that we just weren’t aware of. I’m not sure when that would’ve been. There was no real clear-cut answer to that when I went digging for answers on that.”When asked whether the racial nature of the threat would be considered a hate crime, he said, “That’s a very good possibility.” However, he also indicated that the vagueness of the letter made it difficult to determine the object of the threat. “Part of the issue is the letter is crafted in such a way it’s very hard to determine exactly what they’re getting that. I mean, obviously if you know the family and you know that kind of thing you can kind of fill in the blanks, so to speak, but it’s still pretty vague, letter-wise. If you were to just read it…you may not pick up what they’re referring to.”Comments by other posters to the original thread on Facebook indicated that Canton may recently have been home to a Neo-Nazi organization. A search of the Southern Poverty Law Center indicated that Canton is among a number of cities and towns in Illinois purported to host Neo-Nazi and other hate groups. A group called Aryan Nations Sadistic Souls MC is listed on the SPLC Hate Map. When asked whether Canton currently has any active Neo-Nazi organizations, Glad said, “As far as I am aware, there’s not an organized version of that… So I don’t know if I could say that there’s one that’s organized, with meetings and all of that sort of thing, but we’ve come across individuals who claim to be white supremacists and part of an organization. It’s something that we keep an eye on, it’s not something that we’ve – like I said, that’s also an ongoing issue.”A press release from the City of Canton on Tuesday indicates the investigation is ongoing. It states the officer handling the case collected the letter, which is being processed for forensic evidence. It also indicates police presence in the neighborhood has been increased as the investigation continues. “It is the Canton Police Department’s stance that any child in our community, regardless of race, should feel safe in their own neighborhood. Canton police are committed to protecting all of our residents to the best of our ability,” the press release states. “To that end, the Canton Police asks our residents to help us protect our community by being vigilant. In the future, if any resident receives such a letter in the mail, do not pass it around or open it. Notify the police department immediately to protect the integrity of any forensic evidence that may be found on the letter.”Anyone with information that may help identify the author of the letter is asked to contact the Canton Police Dept. at 309-647-5131 or Canton CrimeStoppers at 309-647-3636.The Voice has reached out to the family for comment, and will report any new developments to this story.

Reach Michelle Langhout at mlanghout@mcdonoughvoice.com for comments or questions on this story.

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